“For each and every Nano manufactured here, do you know how much the Gujarat government pays (by way of subsidies and concessions)? It is Rs 60,000. Now tell me do you have a Nano?” Rahul asked a rally in this town, projected by Modi as an auto hub.

Rahul, speaking on the last day of the campaign for the first of the polls on Thursday, did not refer to Modi by name even once but appeared to follow the question-and-answer mode typical of Modi.

“The Gujarat chief minister only thinks of himself, hears only his voice. He thinks only about his dream. A true leader makes the people’s dream his own. This is what Mahatma Gandhi taught us,” he said as the crowd cheered.

One question was meant to contest the Modi government’s claim that villages get uninterrupted power. “Tell me how many hours of electricity do you get in rural Gujarat? Six hours, eight hours? How many hours a day do people get water?” he asked. In certain towns of Saurashtra, people get water only 25 minutes every three days, Rahul said.

“Gujarat has deviated from the ideology and path of Gandhiji. The Opposition’s voice is curbed. Often Opposition leaders are thrown out of the House.”